New Survival Forum.

A new survival forum has started up, you may wish to check it out.

http://ausprepforum.proboards.com/

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Shooting and Fire Season.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Shooting and Fire Season.: It is fire season here in Australia, and the worst one we have ever had so far. Global warming is pushing the temperature up. Using patch ma...

A Woodsrunner's Diary: On Meat Alone.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: On Meat Alone.: On Meat Alone. The list of period foods is quite long, but whose foods are they? Would a woodsrunner bother to carry dried peas, parched...

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Wilderness Living. The Raft Duck Trap.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Wilderness Living. The Raft Duck Trap.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Traps and Trapping. The Figure 4 Trigger and The C...

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Traps and Trapping. The Figure 4 Trigger and The C...

The Old Foodie: Extreme Travel Food: Siberia in 1821.

The Old Foodie: Extreme Travel Food: Siberia in 1821.: In early 1821, the German Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel was appointed to lead the Kolymskaya Expedition to explore and...

Global Warming in Australia. Help Needed. VIDEO.

Gardens. Boxing and Mulching.

When we want to use a bed that has overgrown with weeds, we cover the grass and weeds with cardboard and then mulch on top. The grass and weeds will rot down to compost under the cardboard.
 If we want to use the garden right away, then we can weed the garden, add some manure, box it (cover with cardboard), then add mulch. For planting we simply make holes in the mulch and cardboard and sow directly or plant into the ground.
 Before boxing we soak the ground if we intend to use it right away. The boxing and mulching keeps in the moisture and saves water.

A short piece of fencing of ring lock for the choko to climb on.

Queensland Blue pumpkin patch boxed, mulched and sown.

Another section of garden boxed over weeds and grass but not yet mulched.

A new garden bed I have just prepared where the old compost heap used to be. This bed for Golden Nugget pumpkins. I dug out the grass and weeds and added sheep manure before boxing. I will be adding mulch and sowing tonight when it gets cool.

This section was boxed and mulched during winter, and is now ready for planting.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: 18th Century Wilderness Living. Experimental Archa...

A Woodsrunner's Diary: 18th Century Wilderness Living. Experimental Archa...: 18 th Century Wilderness Living. Experimental Archaeology. The question that is always on people’s minds is “what do I carry”. To answ...

What Do I Need To Get? Part 1.

You need to prepare for any survival situation that you can reasonably be expected to survive.

·         Dried foods and canned foods. It would be more practicle to store the foods that you normally eat, so you can use your store, then replace it. Keeping your stock turning over. However, there may be some dry foods that you do not normally eat that would be good to stock, such as rice, flour, dried peas, oats, lentils, beans, etc.
Canned fruit in juice are also good, but get them when they are on special or at a reasonable price per kilo.

·         Bottled water and soda water, unless you are on tank water.

·         A good medical kit.

·         A good selection of edible plant seeds.

·         A good selection of vitamins. Be careful purchasing Omega 3 in fish capsule form. The ocean is now polluted with radio active material, and some companies are not testing their products for radio active pollution. I recommend that you get Flax Oil capsules instead. Vitamin C is a must, and any others recommended to you by your doctor.

·         Get a decent back pack or knapsack for each member of your family. If they are not into prepping. Get them anyway and stock them yourself.

·         Get a decent butcher knife and make a leather sheath for it. Each member of your group or family should be equipped with these tools. Good second hand butcher knives can be found in second hand shops for very little expense.

·         A good clasp knife with a single blade.

·         A second smaller butcher knife to carry as a back-up, either on your person, or in your pack.

·         A tomahawk. This is to be the round or oval type eye such as is used on pick axes only smaller of course. http://www.mopokesstockandtrade.com/#!products/cq4e

·         Flint and steel kit. This is NOT the ferrocerium rod, this is the real thing. You need a piece of flint or similar hard rock. You need a steel or striker, and you need a tinderbox. These are also available from Mopoke’s stock and Trade as above. Then you need to learn how to use it.

** A quantity of food bags, either cotton, linen or leather. This is for carrying your dried foods if you have to leave home.

** Water canteen or bottles.

Tomahawk, butcher/hunting knife, clasp knife, and the author's legging knife.

A selection of different fire steels or strikers, and a selection of siliceous rocks.

A brass tinderbox.

Tinderbox with plant tinder inside and a gun flint.

A selection of food bags, a rum bottle and a bottle used for holding iodine.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Tales From Green Valley Farm Part 4.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Tales From Green Valley Farm Part 4.

First Things 1st. Where To Start in your Survival Preparations.

First Things 1^st.

If you are serious about prepping for survival, then these items below are in my opinion the first things you should take care of if you have not done so already.

·         Stop smoking. http://au.news.yahoo.com/qld/a/19339919/risk-of-early-death-from-smoking-more-severe-than-thought-australian-study-reveals/

·         If you are alcohol dependant, do something about it. If alcohol is not available in the future, you will go cold turkey and may not handle it. Like tobacco, it is costing you money and affecting your health.

·         Get rid of all your debts.

·         Start growing your own food, in your garden or in pots.

·         Make your home as secure as reasonably can be expected.

·         Start thinking about moving out into the country, either by purchasing your own land, or renting.

·         Start learning some wilderness survival skills.

·         Keep your eyes open for a decent backpack. No zips are preferable, but get what you can, even if it is a second hand one.

·         Apply for a firearms license and get an instruction pamphlet from your local police station.

·         When thinking about getting equipment, think seriously about what your needs will be. IF you have to leave town or city and seek a secure place in the bush, many modern gadgets will be of no use to you. Think long term wilderness survival. Follow this blog for ideas on what to get.

The Threat From Global Warming.

It is still spring here in New England NSW Australia, and yet the temperature is 40 degrees!!!! At night there are heavy frosts, so what the sun does not burn in the garden, the frost kills anyway. And what happened to our winter? No snow and not cold enough to kill the bugs. Cane toads are now on the Qld NSW border, and it is going to get far worse.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Green Valley Farm Part 2.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Green Valley Farm Part 2.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Preserving Meat. Making Salt Pork.

A Woodsrunner's Diary: Preserving Meat. Making Salt Pork.

Surviving Out Of Town. Green Valley Farm Part 1.

The CEC Report October 3rd 2013

Cornish Woodland Workshop: Love parachute

Cornish Woodland Workshop: Love parachute: I love this image of the parachute we use for shelter. In fairness it was probably more effective as shade than rain shelter this summer, bu...